Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

36 2 A chronological survey
however, meant that in the fifth century the Christians in Persia were
increasingly favoured and tolerated. After the Councils of Ephesus (431)
and Chalcedon (451) 91 numerous followers of Nestorius’ doctrine of Christ’s
dual nature fled to Persia and became crucial supporters of the Sasanian
dynasty. 92 In contrast to the Christians, who were attached to the see at
Antioch, the Nestorians were not seen as potential spies but rather as allies
in the battle against Byzantium. At the same time the Byzantine emperor’s
claim to be the sole legitimate representative of the Christian Church was
rejected. 93 As a consequence religious persecutions ceased. In the year 484
Barsaumā, a fanatical follower of Nestorianism, used his influence to the
effect that the synod of Bēt Lāpāt, 94 supported by the Sasanian ruler Pērōz
(459–84), imposed the Nestorian religion on all Christian communities in
Persia. 95 Within a short period of time the Nestorian Church established
a close net of dioceses throughout the empire and Nestorianism became
something like a second ‘state church’ besides Zoroastrianism. 96
Be this as it may, the lack of Persian pressure on the Western frontier
may also be explained by the continuing conflicts with the Hephthalites,
which forced the Sasanians to exert all their energies on the Eastern frontier
(10). 97 The Hephthalites were among the peoples who had advanced from
Dsungara to Central Asia and now ruled Sogdia, Bactria, the Western side
of the Tarim Basin and Northwest India. 98 The Sasanian kings Yazdgard II
and Pērōz I in particular had to cope with the attacks of these peoples, who
were also called the ‘White Huns’. Yazdgard II was even forced to move his
residence to the East for a few years in order to take better action against
the Hephthalites. When Pērōz I died in his battle against the Hephthalites
Persian foreign policy entered a phase of complete inertia.
There were no new confrontations with the Romans, although the
Western power repeatedly tried to gain from the problems faced by its
Eastern opponent. Emperor Leo I (457–74) refused the payments for the
defence of the Caucasus passes that had been agreed upon by both powers
in 441 and served the interests of both sides (27). However, Procopius states
that Zeno (474–5/476–91) sent the magister officiorum Eusebios as ambassador
to the Sasanian king Pērōz I so that he would accompany the king
91 On the councils of the fourth and fifth centuries see Young 1983.
92 On Nestorianism see Stewart 1928. 93 Hage 1973: 182–7. 94 Morony 1990: 187–8.
95 Gero 1981; on Barsaumā as mediator between East and West see Brock 1992; Brock 1996: 69–85 and
Teixidor 1995: 499–510.
96 For the consequences of this development on the unity of the Church in the West see Haussig 1959:
34–56.
97 A survey of the history of Eastern Iran in the Sasanian period may be found in Bivar 1983a: 209–17.
98 Zeimal 1993: 232–62.